Data recorders are currently being used in a wide variety of applications for imprinting various types of forms, documents and the like. In many cases these data recorders include roller platens and are designed for manual operation wherein the operator grasps a platen carriage and causes the roller platen to pass over a form and an embossed printing device such as a credit card lying on the bed of the machine to cause an impression of the data on the printing device to be made on the form.
Data recorders of the foregoing kind have met with a certain amount of success, although the manual operation associated with these machines, and the fact that the same machine is frequently operated by various people during a normal work period, result in non-uniformity in the quality of the printed impressions on the forms. Also, in those cases where the data recorders are utilized for fairly high production by a single operator, the manual actuation of the machines becomes tedious and undesirable.
An electrically operated data recorder which avoids the problems of non-uniformity of impressions and tedious operation implicit in manual operation is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,420,171. As shown therein, the data recorder comprises a bed section or gate hinged to a base to provide an open-throat for the reception of the embossed card and the form to be imprinted. The roller platen is automatically set in printing motion when the gate is pivoted to closed position against the base and, on completion of a printing stroke, the gate is automatically opened to avoid double imaging of the form as the roller platen is returned to its home position.
The prior art device comprises a drive fork, under constant drive by a motor drive crank, for moving the roller platen through a printing operation. Typically, the roller platen is held at home position at one end of its travel and remains at rest at that position to permit insertion of the credit card and the form when the bed is in the open position. Movement of the bed to the closed position energizes the motor for driving the roller platen from the home position through a printing stroke. However, to insure that the motor driven crank coacting with the drive fork will make only a single revolution during each printing stroke and then be shut off, the prior art device requires fairly complex mechanism which adds to the cost of the machine. Further cost and complexity in the prior device result from the requirement of a clutch or brake associated with the motor to prevent the motor and drive from coasting after the motor has been shut off and carrying the platen beyond the home position and partially into what would ordinarily be the next printing stroke.
The present invention provides a data recorder comprising a simplified mechanism which is less costly to produce, more reliable in operation and easily maintained, and faster acting in operation as compared with the prior art device.